Golf club

ABSTRACT

An improved golf club iron for effectively and consistently hitting a golf ball off of the fairway and other playing areas of the golf course. The iron club head includes a forwardly disposed flat surface interposed vertically between the sole and the lowermost portion of the club hitting face whereby the leading, lowermost vertical surface substantially reduces chances of mishitting the ball such as taking a fat divot or cutting the golf ball cover. The vertical flat surface is a non-hitting surface which terminates below the sweet spot on the inclined hitting surface of the golf club iron.

United States Patent 191 Schonher GOLF CLUB [22] Filed: May 23, 1974 [2]] Appl. No.: 472,538

[52] US. Cl. 273/167 A; 273/167 J [51] Int. Cl A631) 53/04 [58] Field of Search 273/77 R, 77 A, 78, 164, 273/167-175; D34/5 GH, 5 GS, 5 GC [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,000,982 8/191 1 Biddle 273/174 1,334,189 3/1920 Swanson 273/168 1,525,137 2/1925 Lawton 273/175 3,079,157 2/1963 Turner 273/167 A FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 925 1/1894 United Kingdom 273/167 A f G- L 5 [In 3,893,672 1 1 July 8,1975

1,063,798 3/1967 United Kingdom 273/167 A Primary Examiner-Richard J. Apley Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Thomas M. Schmitz [5 7] ABSTRACT An improved golf club iron for effectively and consistently hitting a golf ball off of the fairway and other playing areas of the golf course. The iron club head includes a forwardly disposed flat surface interposed vertically between the sole and the lowermost portion of the club hitting face whereby the leading, lowermost vertical surface substantially reduces chances of mishitting the ball such as taking a fat divot or cutting the golf ball cover. The vertical flat surface is a nonhitting surface which terminates below the sweet spot on the inclined hitting surface of the golf club iron.

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 1 h BETWEEN INCH (cose) AND 4 INCH (003.6)

GOLF CLUB Golf club irons are customarily designated as fairway irons and generally are identified as No. 1 iron, No. 2 iron, etc., up to and including No. 9 iron. Golf club irons are particularly adapted to hit the golf ball off the fairway and other playing areas to obtain a desired distance in conjunction with a desired loftv A No. 2 iron, for example, has an inclined hitting surface inclined about with the vertical (loft) that will cause the ball to lift off the fairway with minimal loft and with attendant longest distance. On the other hand, a No. 9 iron has about a 46 inclined surface or loft that is particularly adapted to lift the ball off the fairway with the highest loft and attendant much shorter distance. All of the irons, Nos. 1-9, inclusive, are adapted to give varying trajectories wherein the loft increases with attendant decreased distance, assuming, of course, that the ball is hit properly by the golf club hitting surface.

Accordingly, it is most desirable to provide golf club irons particularly adapted to consistently hit the golf ball with the centroid portion of the hitting surface (often referred to as a sweet spot") and to hit the ball with the desired loft, consistent distance, as well as the proper direction. Hitting the centroid of the hitting surface of sweet spot is a difficult task for even the good golfer. Statistics indicate that above-average golfers with about a l4 handicap hit the ball on the sweet spot only about 20 percent of the time, whereas parshooters hit the sweet spot only about 50 percent of the time. Missing the sweet spot is attributed to many factors but primarily related to properly aligning a sloping hitting surface with the golf ball.

The tendency for most golfers is to try to scoop the ball off the fairway rather than hit down and through the ball with the sloped hitting face. Scooping can be attributed to the sloped hitting surface terminating in a non-hitting forward edge whereby golfers consciously avoid hitting the ball or the turf directly with the sharp edge.

Golf pros emphasize hitting down and through the ball rather than scoop the ball. Scooping often results in a fat shot wherein considerable turf is taken referred to as a divot. Taking too much turf slows the speed of the club head, prevents a follow-through, changes the direction of the club face, and generally results in inferior and poor shots. All prior art fairway irons have the lowermost sloping hitting face terminating in a sharp acute angle with the sole portion of the club head. The sharp leading edge is a non-hitting surface and inadvertently causes misalignment of the sweet spot of the club hitting surface with the golf ball. The forward or leading edge is not intended to be a hit ting surface, but is a serious distraction to the golfer who is keenly aware of and views the leading edge when striking the ball. Further, a minor misalignment of the club head to hit high on the ball often causes the leading edge to cut into the golf ball cover in addition to hitting the ball poorly.

It now has been found that many of the foregoing problems inherent in hitting a ball with a sloped hitting surface can be substantially reduced and essentially eliminated for good golfers by the golf club iron of this invention having a forward non-hitting surface vertically interposed between the lower portion of the club hitting face and the club sole.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention is to provide a golf club iron having a blunt forward vertical surface interposed between the inclined hitting surface and the sole of the club head.

A further object is to provide a golf club iron particularly adapted for eliminating the guesswork in aligning the club hitting surface with the ball and avoid scooping and hitting behind the ball.

A further object is to provide a golf club iron particularly suitable for consistently hitting the ball on the sweet spot of the iron and avoid taking excess divot behind the ball or cutting the ball cover by hitting the ball with a sharp forward edge.

These and other advantages of this invention will be come more apparent by referring to the drawings and the detailed description of the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, this invention pertains to golf club irons having the sloped hitting surface of the club iron extending downwardly and terminating with a forwardly disposed flat vertical surface interposed between the inclined hitting face surface and the bottom sole of the club.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the golf club iron of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the iron shown in FIG. 1',

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 depicting a statistical analysis of the sloped hitting surface of a conventional golf club iron;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation view of a modified iron similar to FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along lines 5-5 in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is an enlargement of a portion of FIG. 2 indicating another preferred embodiment of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference characters designate like parts, shown is a golf club iron 10 having a club head 12 and a shaft 14 connected together by an upwardly extending hosel portion 16 of the club head 12. The hose] 16 extends downwardly into a heel portion 18 and a toe portion 20 and having interposed therebetween a sole portion 22 adapted to rest on baseline or ground line 24. The club head 12 extends laterally into a blade 26 having a sloped hitting surface 28 thereon for planer hitting the golf ball. The blade 26 has a pitch 27 that varies with the club iron providing a loft which is the angle 0 measured between the pitch 27 and the vertical centerline 15 through the shaft disposed normal to the ground. The loft 8 of each club varies with the club and is approximately as follows: No. 2 20; No. 3 23; No. 4 26; No. 5 30; No. 6 34; No. 7 38; No. 8 42; No. 9 46; wherein the loft 6 can vary i l depending on the club manufacturer. The hitting face 28 of the club head 12 is provided with a plurality of grooves 30 which conform to standard U.S.G.A. specifications.

The grooved hitting surface 28 extends downwardly and terminates adjacently to a blunt, vertical nonhitting surface 32 forwardly disposed between the toe 20 and the heel l8 and terminating adjacent to the sole 22 and hitting surface 28 of the club head 12. The blunt, forward non-hitting surface 32 is vertical with respect to the baseline or groundline 24 and is adapted to terminate below the normal hitting surface 28 of the golf club iron. The blunt, lowermost non-hitting surface 32 results in removing the forward, lowermost protruding edge on conventional golf club irons. The intended preferred hitting surface is indicated as a circle 34 on' the face club hitting surface 28 and is often called the sweet spot or centroid 34 although only approximately centered on the club hitting surface 28. Providing the lowermost forward portion of the club face with a forward blunt surface 32 eliminates the guesswork in aligning the forward edge of the club with the golf ball upon impact. The non-hitting sharp forward edge is eliminated thereby removing the psychological tendency to scoop the ball rather than properly hit down and through the ball. Recent innovations in golf club irons have suggested expanding the sweet spot by rearranging the weight distribution across the club blade. Such redistribution of weight, however, does not alleviate inherent problems caused by the protruding sharp lowermost edge on conventional golf club irons which is the cause of most poorly hit iron shots. Accordingly, this invention is applicable to all golf club irons regardless of the preferred hitting area or sweet spot, provided that the blunt non-hitting forward surface 32 of the club iron terminates below the intended hitting surface 28.

Referring now to FIG. 3, shown is a conventional golf club having numbers on the hitting surface thereof indicating a statistical analysis listing where and how often most golfers hit the ball on the club hitting surface with respect to the centroid 34 indicated as a small circle and generally considered to be roughly one-fourth inch in diameter approximately at the center of the club hitting surface. Although less than one-half of a good golfers shots are hit directly on the centroid 34, it is readily apparent from the statistics in FIG. 3 that most golfers tend to hit the ball high toward the toe of the iron and somewhat on a line low toward the heel of the club iron. The statistical analysis further indicates that the ball is almost never hit on lowermost, forward protruding portion of the club head face that terminates with a sharp protruding forward edge interposed between the sole and sloped hitting surface. Although not intended to be bound by theory, it is believed that the ge ometry of the lowermost protruding forward edge on conventional clubs does not permit the ball to hit the lowermost sloping hitting surface. The protruding for ward edge will hit the ball first rather than permit the ball to engage the lower portions of the sloping hitting surface.

This invention eliminates the protruding lowermost leading edge on prior art golf club irons wherein the leading edge is an acute angle formed by the intersection of the sloping hitting surface and the sole. The irons of this invention provide a leading blunt vertical surface 32 interposed between the sloped hitting surface 28 and the sole 22. The blunt vertical surface 32 is a nonhitting surface extending upwardly but terminating below the intended hitting surface 28 and well below the centroid 32 thereof. The vertical height ll of the blunt, non-hitting surface 32 is at least onesixteenth inch in height relative to the baseline 24 but not greater than 70 percent of the vertical distance from the baseline to the centroid 34 located on the club hitting surface 28. The vertical height h is measured in a vertical plane coinciding with the centroid 34 and particularly with respect to beveled sole clubs shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 wherein the baseline 24 tangentially engages the sole 22 only at portions proximate to the centroid 34 rather than from heel 18 to toe 30 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Section 55 shown in FIG. 5 would be suitable for measuring h for beveled clubs. As noted, the height h of the heading vertical surface 32 does not exceed about percent of the vertical distance to the centroid 34 which again is best measured in a vertical plane coinciding with the centroid 34. The vertical distance from the baseline 24 to the centroid 34 of the club head 12 can remain constant for all of the irons as proposed in Reach patent, US. Pat. No. 1,642,462, and incorporated herein by reference. Brandon patent, US. Pat. No. 2,784,969, proposes a golf club having the vertical distance H to the centroid of the club vary with the loft angle of the club and said patent is incorporated herein by reference. Accordingly, the vertical height h of the leading vertical surface 32 is at least about one-sixteenth inch but less than about 70 percent of the vertical distance to the centroid 32. The sweet spot"or centroid 32 is approximately the center of gravity of the club as proposed in British Pat. No. 359,487 and said Reach and Brandon patents and incorporated herein by reference.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, the pitch 27 of the golf blade 26 is shown to vary with golf club irons Nos. l-9, inclusive, whereby the loft angle 6 changes accordingly. The vertical height h of the leading vertical surface 32 preferably changes slightly for a set of fairway irons. Thus, the preferred vertical height h is between about h /8 inches (cos. 6) and h 5/16 inches (cos. 6), wherein 6 is the loft angle in degrees as noted hereinbefore.

FIGS. 4 and 5 indicate a recent innovation in golf club irons wherein the sole 22 of the iron is contoured from heel to toe and from the leading edge to the back of the sole. The so-called contoured sole gives less turf drag due to raising the heel and toe portions of the club whereby only the centrally disposed contour below the centroid or sweet spot 34 engages the turf of cuts a divot. This invention is applicable to the contoured sole club wherein the contoured sole 22 and sloped hitting surface 28 have interposed therebetween a blunt forward nonhitting surface 32 located at the lowermost forward or leading portion of the club face. The height h of the blunt forward vertical surface indicated as x is measured from the baseline 24 of the contoured surface and in a plane intersecting the centroid 34 of the club face, as indicated in the section 55 taken in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 indicates a preferred embodiment of this in vention incorporating beveled upper edge 36 and lower edge 38 wherein the intersecting line of leading blunt surface 32 and the sloping hitting surface 28 is beveled at 36 as well as the intersecting line of the blunt surface 32 and the sole 22 is beveled at 38.

The golf club of this invention is particularly suitable for avoiding poorly hit iron shots and eliminates the distraction of a leading or forward sharp non-hitting edge that protrudes forwardly beyond the sloped hitting surface. Providing an iron with a blunt forward non-hitting surface in accordance with this invention advantageously prevents undesirable cutting of golf ball covers as well as reducing the tendency of taking fat divots. The blunt forward vertical surface provides a straight edge suitable for alignment with the ball upon stroking the ball with the sloped hitting surface on the club blade thereby eliminating the tendency to scoop the ball. The blunt forward surface requires the golfer to properly hit down and through the ball.

The foregoing is descriptive of a golf club iron having a leading, lowermost non-hitting vertical surface but is not intended to be limiting, except by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a golf club having a shaft and club head, said club head having a bottom surface sole disposed between a heel and toe, the sole of said club head having a horizontal baseline, said club head having a hosel interconnected with said shaft, said club head having a sloped, planer surface inclined with the vertical to define a loft angle therebetween of between about to 46, said sloped hitting surface disposed between said heel and toe and having a centroid on said sloped hitting surface, the improvement which comprises:

a blunt leading surface disposed between said toe and heel and extending vertically upward from said sole, said blunt leading surface being a non-hitting surface terminating with the intersection of said sloped surface below the centroid on the sloped hitting surface, said vertical leading surface being at least about one-sixteenth inch in vertical height from said baseline and less than about 70 percent of the vertical distance of the centroid from said baseline of the sole of said club.

2. The golf club in claim 1 wherein the vertical distance h of said blunt surface is between I: (cos. 6) Va 6 inch and h (cos. 6) 5/16 inch, wherein 6 is the angle of loft of said iron.

3. The golf club set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom sole is flat.

4. The golf club set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom sole is contoured.

5. The golf club in claim 1 wherein the intersection of the sloped hitting surface and the blunt leading vertical surface is beveled.

6. The golf club in claim 5 wherein the intersection of the blunt leading vertical surface and the sole is beveled.

7. In a golf club having a shaft and club head including a toe, a heel, and a bottom surface sole disposed between said heel and toe, the sole of said club head having a horizontal baseline, said club head having a hose] interconnected with said shaft, said club head having a planer sloped hitting surface inclined with a vertical defining a loft angle therebetween of between about 20 to 46, said sloped hitting surface disposed between said heel and toe, the improvement comprising:

a forewardly disposed lowermost non-hitting vertical surface, said vertical surface disposed between said toe and heel and extending vertically upward from said sole and terminating with the intersection of said sloped hitting surface, the vertical height of said vertical surface being between about (Cos. 6) one-eighth inch and (Cos. 6) five-sixteenths inch from said baseline, wherein 6 is the loft angle of said golf club. 

1. In a golf club having a shaft and club head, said club head having a bottom surface sole disposed between a heel and toe, the sole of said club head having a horizontal baseline, said club head having a hosel interconnected with said shaft, said club head having a sloped, planer surface inclined with the vertical to define a loFt angle therebetween of between about 20* to 46*, said sloped hitting surface disposed between said heel and toe and having a centroid on said sloped hitting surface, the improvement which comprises: a blunt leading surface disposed between said toe and heel and extending vertically upward from said sole, said blunt leading surface being a non-hitting surface terminating with the intersection of said sloped surface below the centroid on the sloped hitting surface, said vertical leading surface being at least about one-sixteenth inch in vertical height from said baseline and less than about 70 percent of the vertical distance of the centroid from said baseline of the sole of said club.
 2. The golf club in claim 1 wherein the vertical distance h of said blunt surface is between h (cos. theta ) 1/8 inch and h (cos. theta ) 5/16 inch, wherein theta is the angle of loft of said iron.
 3. The golf club set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom sole is flat.
 4. The golf club set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom sole is contoured.
 5. The golf club in claim 1 wherein the intersection of the sloped hitting surface and the blunt leading vertical surface is beveled.
 6. The golf club in claim 5 wherein the intersection of the blunt leading vertical surface and the sole is beveled.
 7. In a golf club having a shaft and club head including a toe, a heel, and a bottom surface sole disposed between said heel and toe, the sole of said club head having a horizontal baseline, said club head having a hosel interconnected with said shaft, said club head having a planer sloped hitting surface inclined with a vertical defining a loft angle therebetween of between about 20* to 46*, said sloped hitting surface disposed between said heel and toe, the improvement comprising: a forewardly disposed lowermost non-hitting vertical surface, said vertical surface disposed between said toe and heel and extending vertically upward from said sole and terminating with the intersection of said sloped hitting surface, the vertical height of said vertical surface being between about (Cos. theta ) one-eighth inch and (Cos. theta ) five-sixteenths inch from said baseline, wherein theta is the loft angle of said golf club. 